Andrew McKenzie-McHarg

Project

One of the areas Andrew has investigated in his previous research is the transfer of fears of an Illuminati conspiracy across the Atlantic at the end of the eighteenth century; a transfer, which required some feats of adaptation in order to re-work the Illuminati ideology from one associated with modern ideals not entirely at odds with America’s own founding values into one associated with anarchy and anomy. But the transfer of fears of conspiracy did not just proceed from east to west. One focus of Andrew’s future research will be directed at how earlier fears of conspiracies instigated by slaves and Native Americans entered into the European apprehensions about subversion.

About

His interests have extended from anti-Jesuit rhetoric in the Early Modern Period to radical streams of thought in late Enlightenment Germany. After graduating from the Free University in Berlin, he was associated with the Research Centre in Gotha. He has been a recipient of Schneider-Stipend and a scholarship from the Deutsche Klassik Stiftung which have allowed him to conduct research at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel and at the Herzogin Anna Amalie Bibliothek in Weimar.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

- “Anonymity and Ideology. When Defenders of Church and State Opt for Anonymity,” [currently under review]

- “‘A general murther, an universal slaughter.’ Strategies of Anti-Jesuit Defamation in Reporting Assassination in the Early Modern Period.” In: Larissa Tracy (ed.), Murder Most Foul: Medieval and Early Modern Homicide. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2018. 281-307.

- “Putting a Positive Spin on Priestcraft. Notions of Deceit and Accommodation in Late-Enlightenment German Theology,” Intellectual History Review 28:1 (2018), 201-224.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2018.1402436

- [with James Lancaster], “Priestcraft. Anatomising the Anti-Clericalism of Early Modern Europe,” Intellectual History Review 28:1 (2018), 7-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2018.1402448

- “Martyrdom and its Discontents: The Martyr as a Motif of Migration in Early Modern Europe.” In: Jared Poley, Jason Coy, Alexander Schunka (eds.), Migrations in the German Lands, 1500-2000. Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association. Berghahn Books. Oxford / New York 2016. 35-50.

- “The Transfer of anti-Illuminati Conspiracy Theories to America in the late 18th Century.” In: Michael Butter und Maurus Reinkowski (eds.): Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East and the United States. De Gruyter. Berlin 2013. 231-250.